Eddie Collins with the portrait of his mother that hangs in the office at Sara Collins Elementary School. / Donna Isbell Walker/Staff

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City People writer

For Eddie Collins and his sisters, Sara Collins was the mother who died far too young.

For generations of schoolchildren, she is the name emblazoned on the front of their school and the face in the oil painting that hangs in the office.

And for Sara Collins Elementary School principal Dr. Melissa Burns, Sara Collins is the woman whose spirit lives on in the school community.

“With her volunteerism, to this day there is such a passion for the children in this school, and it’s a very diverse school,” says Burns. “Children with different needs, abilities, backgrounds, but when parents come in to volunteer, from all backgrounds, they are here for all the children.”

Burns, who has worked at a number of schools, says that kind of esprit de corps is unique. “I think her legacy is such that it is truly a community school in that it’s not just the educators here, but the support from the community, the continued support from the Collins family. I am just privileged to be able to work here.”

Sara Collins was a Duke University-educated mother of five who lobbied for a new school in what was then a rural part of Greenville, the Parkins Mill area. At the time, students in the area had to carpool to Augusta Circle Elementary, several miles away, until the city bus system expanded its routes to pick up children in the outlying areas, according to Paxson MacDonald, Sara Collins’ youngest daughter.

Sara Collins died in July 1964, just two months before the opening of the new school, and her two younger children would spend their elementary years there. The school board voted to honor her memory by giving her name to the school.

At the time of her death, Sara’s five children ranged in age from 3 to 17.

Education was important to Sara Collins, and it’s one of her most important legacies for her children, says Eddie.

“We know the value of education. All of my sisters and I attended college, and we all graduated with degrees, and we know it’s a very key part of who you’re going to be when you grow up. ... It’s part of who we are, and I have to attribute that to my father, and to my mother’s legacy.”

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Eldest daughter Susan, who died last month, became a teacher and taught at Carolina and J.L. Mann high schools and later at Greenville Tech.

Paxson and Eddie have fond memories of their years at the school named for their mother and the care they received from their teachers.

In fact, they kept in touch with several teachers long after elementary school was over.

Eddie recalls receiving a handmade afghan from his first-grade teacher, Ruth Verdin, when he was in college, and Verdin sent Paxson a baby blanket that she had crocheted for Paxson’s first child.

Despite the love and concern, it wasn’t always easy for children who had just lost their mother to see her name and face all around the school.

“I cried every morning as I walked past my mother’s portrait,” recalls Paxson, “so I began to walk past it with my eyes closed.”

Most of the Collins children moved away from Greenville after growing up; only Eddie and Sally Collins Dunn, the second-oldest daughter, still live in the Upstate. Daughter Ellen White lives in Gainesville, Ga., and Paxson MacDonald lives in Charlottesville, Va.

It’s been 48 years, and the Collins kids are long gone from the attendance rolls, but the family has remained loyal to and involved with the school their mother worked so hard to create.

The late Ed Collins, Sara’s widower who died in 2003, set an example of his own, spending so much time there that longtime principal Zach Nabers became a fishing buddy. The school’s media center is named in Ed Collins’ honor.

Judy Beard has taught music at Sara Collins for 27 years, and she has many memories of Ed’s service to the school.

One day, Beard says, she was walking past the garden when “something moved in the bushes,” and instead of the bunny rabbit she expected to see, it was Ed who appeared.

“I said, ‘What are you doing down there?’ and he said, ‘I’m pulling weeds. ... Somebody has to pull these weeds.’ He was always doing things himself to help,” Beard says.

It wasn’t just Sara’s widower who worked to keep her memory alive through the school. Son Eddie has served on the School Improvement Council, and his stepmother, Susan, who married Ed Collins two years after Sara’s death, and two stepsisters have also been involved with projects at Sara Collins.

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“My stepmother and stepsisters assumed the responsibility and dedication and love for the school without being asked,” says Eddie.

His stepsisters “are every bit as engaged with the school as the rest of us,” Eddie says.

And even the ones who don’t live in Greenville stay connected. Eddie’s stepsister Suzanne, who lives in North Carolina, reached out to Burns after hearing that Burns would be taking over as principal last year.

Eddie, who was just 3 when his mom died, is pleased that his mother’s name has become a symbol of education in the Greenville community.

“I think the school and its legacy is a testament more than anything else,” Eddie says. “The community has been very supportive and very passionate about the school. And I would like to think that even had it not been named for my mom, that it would be that way. But maybe it’s just the spirit of a mom who took great interest in the community and her family, and in education. Maybe it’s just that spirit that lives here and has fostered all this wonderful participation.”